Eckert

This action was brought by the town of Santa Monica, a municipal corporation of the sixth class, in the recorder’s court, to recover the amount of a license alleged to be due from the defendants for keeping a saloon, the amount of the license fee fixed by the ordinance being $300. In the complaint, plaintiff alleged the amount required to be paid to be $300, but remitted all in excess of $299.99, for the avowed purpose of giving the recorder’s court jurisdiction. Upon the trial in that court defendants had judgment, from which the plaintiff appealed to the superior court, and the trial in that court resulted in a judgment for plaintiff for said sum of $299.99, and costs, from which judgment, and an order denying defendants’ motion for a new trial, the defendants appeal.

The point principally relied upon by appellants for a reversal is that the superior court had no jurisdiction to entertain the appeal, because, as they contend, the recorder’s court from which the appeal was taken had no jurisdiction. This contention is based on the fact that the ordinance of the town of Santa Monica fixed the amount of the license at $300, a sum beyond the jurisdiction of that court, and that…